Fearless Through Secure Reliance
The catalogue continues with three brief similes of secure reliance: it is like a person who relies on a great king, and fears no other person at all; a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise, relying on the mighty Dharma-king that is the mind of bodhi, removing every hindrance and obstruction, fearing no evil destiny. It is like a person who dwells within deep water, and fears no fire; a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise, dwelling within the water of the roots of goodness that is the mind of bodhi, unable to be burned by the fire of the śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha's own liberation. It is like a person who relies on a valiant general, and fears no enemy; a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise, relying on the mind of bodhi, fearing no evil at all.
Relying on a King, Dwelling in Water, Trusting a General
「善男子！譬如有人依恃大王，不畏餘人。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，依菩提心大力法王，除滅障蓋，不畏惡道。
「善男子！譬如有人居深水內，不畏火焚。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，居菩提心善根水內，聲聞、緣覺解脫之火，所不能燒。
「善男子！譬如有人依恃猛將，不畏怨敵。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，依菩提心，不畏諸惡。
"Good man, it is like a person who relies on a great king, and fears no other person at all. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: relying on the mighty Dharma-king that is the mind of bodhi, he removes every hindrance and obstruction, fearing no evil destiny.
"Good man, it is like a person who dwells within deep water, and fears no fire. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: dwelling within the water of the roots of goodness that is the mind of bodhi, he cannot be burned by the fire of the śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha's own liberation.
"Good man, it is like a person who relies on a valiant general, and fears no enemy. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: relying on the mind of bodhi, he fears no evil at all."
These three similes share an identical grammatical structure — reliance upon X removes fear of Y — repeated with only the specific king, element, or general varied, a compression Fazang reads as the catalogue briefly shifting into a faster, almost list-like register after the more elaborated similes preceding it. The middle simile's claim that the water of bodhicitta protects specifically against "the fire of the śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha's own liberation" is doctrinally pointed rather than merely poetic: it treats even a lesser, valid liberation as a kind of danger for a bodhisattva to be guarded against, since settling into it would foreclose the fuller path bodhicitta commits him to.
Part 372 Complete
Three similes of secure reliance are now given in full. Part 373 turns to Śakra wielding vajra to subdue every asura, and to a person who takes a rare alchemical medicine and thereby never ages, growing neither thin nor old across boundless kalpas.
Continue to Part 373 →